VULTURE ON MY VEIN
Confessions From A Bloodletter
By Elizabeth Rhodes
By Elizabeth Rhodes
I am a chicken. My mother knows it, my congressman knows it, even I know it. My editor did not know it, however, when I glibly suggested that I would rather give blood than write the UDK story I was assigned. Actually I was only trying to procrastinate. He took me seriously.
As I walked over the Kansas Union I thought of all the possible ways I could get out of paying my respects to the Red Cross. I could tell them I have malaria, or gathering my histrionic abilities, I could pretend I was Camille, and faint before I saw the needle.
I DECIDED it was my duty to give blood. After all, it was for the men in South Viet Nam, and for this reason I seriously wanted to donate.
Inside the Kansas Union entrance, I was met by a young woman in green who inquired if I wanted to give blood. Between clenched teeth I answered, "Yes," and was escorted to a table where
a motherly-looking Red Cross volunteer took my name and address. Around me stood fraternity men, eyeing women who were eyeing fraternity men.
While my temperature was being taken I had a chance to look around. The room had been turned into an efficient clinic with scurrying nurses and piped-in music. In a corner was a line of hospital beds.
EETWEEN THE temperature-taking and blood pressure check, I kibitzed with the donors around me. Most of them had never given blood before.
After my blood pressure test, a nurse pricked my finger for the hemoglobin test. If there is too little iron in the blood, a potential donor is disqualified. I passed.
Next came a general medical inventory. In rapid succession the nurse asked me if I had diabetes, tuberculosis, jaundice, convulsions, malaria, or a hazardous occupation. I felt like answering
"yes" to the last one. Was I planning to fly within the next 72 hours? About the only place I wanted to go was to the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, for a long rest.
ANOTHER NURSE escorted me to a chair where I was given a glass of orange juice. As I consciously took notes and very slowly sipped my juice the nurse approached. "Are you ready?" she asked. No. but I went anyway.
I was led to a bed, and after a discussion about which arm to operate on, was placed next to a very handsome man in a plaid
KU students yesterday gave 127 pints of blood at the Red Cross donation center in the Kansas Union. The goal for the three-day drive is 1,000 pints.
Give 127 Pints
The donation center hours today and tomorrow are 9 a.m. to 3:15 p.m.
shirt. His bed was immediately next to mine. The nurse instructed me to move closer to him. Without hesitation I complied.
The nurse wrapped my arm with a blood-pressure tourniquet, and swabbed the inside of my elbow with soap, iodine, and alcohol. I saw the needle coming. Now was the time to talk to the man next to me. He looked apprehensive when he saw I was writing on a tablet propped on my stomach.
SINCE THE NURSE instructed me to keep my head down, I did not have a clue as to what my hieroglyphics looked like. The man across from me asked if I always wrote on my stomach. I told him I tried not to because I ruin too many skirts that way.
Surprisingly, the needle felt like an ordinary one. Once it was in place I was not uncomfortably conscious of it.
The nurse gave me a piece of sponge rubber, and I was instructed to squeeze it slowly.
This was the only uncomfortable part. After a few minutes, I felt like I had been water skiing one-handed for about eight hours.
ALTHOUGH IT WAS only supposed to take about seven minutes to take blood, I was sure I had been there at least an hour. The nurse assured me she was only taking a pint. Finally she finished, and I rested on the bed a few minutes before being led to a table covered with ham, roast beef, and cheese sandwiches, plus Pepsi, orange pop, and coffee. Cookies were also provided.
A joking spirit of camaraderie prevailed at my table. Although the food was very palatable, the men—I was the only woman at the table — felt duty-bound to make disparaging comments.
After the mandatory 15 minute waiting period I sauntered out, very proud of myself. In a long, illustrious career of fainting, I had resisted the temptation. I did not even feel dizzy. Now I felt the equal of Batman.
—Photo by Earl Haehl
CARL BANGS AND MIKE JENNISON Labor Officers Explain Plans
Union Plans Talk To Administration
A Student Labor Organization delegation plans to meet with KU administrators this week, SLO members were told last night by Carl Bangs, Prairie Village junior and secretary-treasurer of the group.
Bangs did not specify to whom the SLO representatives will speak. But Provost James R. Surface said this morning he would be happy to meet with the labor organization.
SPEAKERS AT last night's meeting, attended by about 40 persons, urged members to organize, create support, persuade—and then strike, picket or boycott if necessary.
"Students can't afford not to strike," said Eileen Wilcox, Lawrence senior and one of the speakers. Mrs. Wilcox said the sight and effect of students' picketing, striking and boycotting will be effective. She recommended strikes if negotiations do not work.
Mike Jennison, New York City sophomore and SLO president, told his members that the group is not a labor union.
"We make no guarantee that if students strike they will not lose their jobs or that there will be a definite pay raise," Jennison said. Jennison said the SLO has modified earlier statements concerning the federal minimum wage and employment of high school and Haskell Institute students.
HE SAID the federal wage standard does not cover KU student employees. But Jennison added that the $1.25 minimum is "a good figure."
The president also said that because of demands for higher pay and job priority for KU students and their wives, the objections to the hiring of high school and Haskell students are redundant and will be dropped.
THIS MORNING, Provost Surface cautioned against expecting quick answers to the difficult problem of raising student wages. With the exception of Kansas Union and residence hall employees, the University pays students from the student assistance fund of about $500,000 appropriated by the legislature, he said.
"It's a matter of simple arithmetic." Provost Surface continued. "If we double the rate of pay, then we can work students only half as many hours. And when we cut services, we'll have complaints about poor service in the libraries and elsewhere.
76th Year, No. 79
Spring Fees Due Saturday
Spring semester fees must be paid this week in the Business Office. 121 Strong Hall.
kansan
Payment began yesterday and will continue through Friday, 8-11:45 a.m. and 1-4:45 p.m. All fees must be paid by noon Saturday.
Enrollment will be cancelled for students whose fees are not paid before Feb. 21.
Serving KU for 76 of its 100 Years
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
Students can pick up fee cards in Strong Hall basement with the presentation of their KU-ID and certificate of registration.
PRESIDENT JOHNSON told a news conference last week that he stands ready to order more troops to Viet Nam, but added he has no immediate plans to call up the reserves at this time.
McNamara Prepares For Military Increase
Asked about the possibilities of stepping up the war, he said, "Well, there are preparations being made for substantially increasing our deployments to South Viet Nam and raising the rate of activity of our units there."
WASHINGTON —(UPI)— Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara has made preparations to commit still more U.S. troops to the Viet Nam war if necessary, previously secret testimony disclosed today.
He also warned that the Communists have increased their fighting strength and have shown "every intention" of intensifying the conflict.
The fee for all students who are Kansas residents enrolled on campus for more than six hours is $139; non-resident law and undergraduate, $339; and non-resident graduate, $184.
HIS STATEMENTS were made public in a heavily censored version of testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee and military appropriations subcommittee last month.
The defense secretary said that any final decision to send more American fighting men to Viet Nam must be made by President Johnson.
Tuesday, February 15, 1966
Gen. Earl G. Wheeler, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified during the same period that U.S. forces in Viet Nam had favorably reversed the tide of military events.
In the testimony, McNamara and Wheeler were joined by the top officers of the Army and Marine Corps in criticizing the concept advanced by retired Gen. James M. Gavin that the United
States should concentrate on defense of coastal enclaves in South Viet Nam and restrict its ground and air operations.
McNAMARA argued vigorously against some suggestions that the United States should expand its bombing of North Viet Nam. He said the military power of North Viet Nam does not depend on its own industrial resources.
De Gaulle Raps Moves in War
PARIS — (UPI)— French President Charles de Gaulle today ruled out a military victory by either side in Viet Nam and rapped any moves to prolong or step up the war there.
He said that a political solution and complete neutralization of Viet Nam was the only possible way of ending the war. He said France wanted to "take an active part" in such a solution "as soon as this appears possible."
DE GAULLE offered his views in a letter to North Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh. The text was released here.
He said France wanted to maintain any contacts with North Viet Nam that would help promote such a solution. France wishes to "influence the situation to hasten the end of the war and to participate actively in its settlement when that appears possible," De Gaulle added.
De Gaulle was replying to a letter from Ho Chi Minh Jan. 24 in
which the North Vietnamese leader asked France to assume its full responsibilities under the 1954 Geneva agreements to help settle the war.
HE RECALLED that France stood for a return to the Geneva agreement, with the independence of Viet Nam being guaranteed by non-intervention by all foreign powers and by a policy of strict neutrality on the part of the Vietnamese authorities.
"In other words," he said, "we exclude any military solution and we do not approve of the fighting being prolonged."
WEATHER
The U.S. Weather Bureau forecasts increasing cloudiness tonight through Wednesday with snow beginning this evening and continuing into Wednesday. The low tonight will be near 10 degrees.